Reshona Landfair, long known in court records and media as “Jane Doe,” says she met R. Kelly as a preteen in 1996 and was soon starstruck, then groomed and abused. Landfair describes years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse that followed, and the isolation she felt when an infamous videotape of Kelly abusing her became public.
Asked on NPR’s All Things Considered with host Juana Summers how she reacted after the tape surfaced, Landfair said, “It was everything that I hear about prison.” She added, “It was very traumatizing. It was very hurtful and lonely.”
That video was shown to juries in two of Kelly’s trials on child pornography charges: in 2008, which ended in acquittal, and again in 2022, which resulted in his conviction. Landfair’s new memoir, Who’s Watching Shorty? Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group), recounts her turbulent adolescence, her escape from a long cycle of exploitation, and her efforts to reclaim her identity and speak for other survivors.
Listen to the full interview on All Things Considered.